October 23rd 2017 marks the 25th anniversary of NorthBridge Consultants!

Since NorthBridge Consultants’ inception in 1992, NorthBridge has grown from a five member team, based out of a two desk office in a Cambridge manufacturing facility, to one of the largest independent national Government Funding service providers in Canada.

We attribute our track record of results and success to our investment in people, diversification, and continuous innovation.

We would therefore like to take this opportunity to extend our warmest gratitude to our clients, partners, and team members who have all individually contributed to our growth and success!

Elevate Toronto Festival launched this year with huge success, celebrating the best of the Canadian innovation ecosystem and bringing together talent, founders, investors, and corporate innovators to discover, connect, and be inspired.

The three day technology and innovation festival took over downtown Toronto last week with the theme “Global Ideas Live Here” and provided a unique platform for Canada’s startup and corporate innovation community to showcase their work and network through numerous main stage events, educational presentations, awards ceremonies, and social gatherings.

ElevateAI at MaRS Discovery District

Elevate main stage events featured keynote speakers, inspirational talks, and high value networking opportunities and wrapped up with an opening night soiree. Day two Elevate educational events provided attendees with a choice of 8 separate tracks in Health, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR), Growth, Design, Lean Innovation, Fintech/Blockchain, and Work, merging together at the end of the day for an “epic street party” on King Street West. Attendees were invited inside the headquarters of some of Toronto’s most inspiring companies as part of NewCo Toronto events on day three, which concluded with the 2nd Annual Timmy Awards and the prestigious Spotlight Awards.

ElementAI co-founder and Deep Learning pioneer, Yoshua Bengio, took the stage at Elevate Toronto Festival’s ElevateAI track to share his views on the importance of advancing research and bringing academia and industry together. When discussing the role of Canada in the AI revolution, Bengio noted that “we had the foresight to invest in something risky…and we built something in terms of critical mass.”

As a global leader in disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, FinTech and Blockchain, which will radically transform how we live, work and interact, Canada is emerging as a lucrative and inclusive epicenter of the advanced technology revolution which is drawing global talent, ideas, and investment. In particular, Toronto’s startup and tech community has exploded over the past few years, especially in areas such as AI and Fintech, thereby attracting private and public investment.

In March 2017, the Federal Government committed $125M to launch a Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy aimed at promoting international investment and collaboration between Canada’s main AI hubs in Montréal, Toronto-Waterloo, and Edmonton. Ontario is investing $50M, together with over 30 private companies who have committed a combined total of $80M, to support the Toronto-based Vector Institute for AI. Moreover, in 2016, Toronto became the home base of NextAI, a global innovation hub for artificial intelligence, launched with initial funding of $5M through a partnership between some of Canada’s largest corporations (including RBC, Magna, BDC Capital, and Scotiabank). Toronto will also become the home of Canada’s second Google Brain lab as well as Uber’s new autonomous car lab.

The potential of emerging technologies to disrupt and transform industry brings about great challenges, and yet even greater opportunities for innovation and economic growth for business and for Canada as a global technology hub.

Attending these SIG event is a great opportunity to interact, share and discuss your best practices with your peers from other companies and learn more about:

Currency exchange uncertainties that are impacting manufacturers doing business with supply chain and/or customers in international markets. Managing this is an integral part of 2017’s day-to-day business!

Best practices to successfully navigate the SR&ED program, tips to maximize claim size, pitfalls to watch out for including Audit review tips for CRA Financial and/or Technical reviews.

SR&ED 2015 Update and Best Practices
Jeff Mitobe from NorthBridge will join us to discuss:
– update on SR&ED program changes impacting manufacturers claims
– SR&ED claim best practices for industry, pitfalls to watch out for, and audit review tips

Round table
An opportunity to ask your peers questions on any topic.
As always, you’ll have ample opportunity to interact and discuss with your peers from other companies.